Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
Should landlords get to claim mortgage interest costs?
Stan Ellis Stuff (No paywall)Aotearoa, New Zealand: Property investors are regaining the ability to claim interest costs. Is it the right move? The Government is reversing a Labour policy that was phasing out the ability of property investors to claim home loan interest as an expense. Associate Finance Minister David Seymour said on Sunday that investors would be able to claim 80% of their interest expenses as a cost for tax purposes from April 1 this year, and 100% from April 1 next year. The change is due to cost the Government $2.9b in tax revenue over the next four years. Both Seymour and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon have argued the ability for investors to claim interest expenses will simplify the tax system, as other businesses are able to deduct their costs, and will ease pressure on rents.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350209283/have-your-say-should-…
# International, .Boy living in ‘social housing hell’ asks Santa for house that doesn’t have any mould
Jamel Smith The Independent (No paywall)A six-year-old boy living in social housing in south London has said he wishes for “somewhere nice and safe for Christmas” after his family was forced into hotels during the festive period because their home wascovered in mould. Amar and his mother Abeba Byfield, in her late 20s, and father, Andre, 31, have been forced to vacate their past two flats due to “health-threatening” amounts of mould, making them feel “completely let down, drained and depressed” by private and council accommodation. After moving into a Lambeth Council flat in Stockwell in September, the family discovered a leak which caused mould and damp to spread throughout the home.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mould-social-hou…
# International, Public and community housing.UK mortgage arrears rose 9.2% in 2023 last quarter amid ‘surge in borrowing costs’
Phillip Inman The Guardian (No paywall)Mortgage arrears jumped by 9.2% in the final quarter of 2023 and by 50% on the previous year, according to Bank of England figures that underscore growing stress in the UK mortgage market. High interest rates and the rising number of people quitting the jobs market over recent months have put pressure on household disposable incomes, forcing some families to cut or suspend a range of monthly bills, including their mortgage payments. The Bank said the total value of mortgage balances which had some arrears increased to £20.3bn, or 1.23% – the highest since the fourth quarter of 2016.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/mar/12/uk-mortgage-arr…
# International, .‘I can’t keep living like this’: a day on the frontline of Australia’s homelessness crisis
Cait Kelly The Guardian (No paywall)Cameron just wants somewhere safe to sleep. Crouching in an alley off Bourke Street in the centre of Melbourne, he speaks quickly and softly. It’s hot, but despite the February sun hitting the footpath at 36C, he has a puffer jacket with him. He has started talking about how his relationship ended, but that’s not what he really wants to say. Really, he’s angry. He’s been on the public housing waitlist since he started rough sleeping. He wants off the street. “There was a relationship breakdown, but that is just life itself,” he says. “I decided to go camping in the park and set up a tent. I didn’t realise how quickly time could pass me by. I realise 15 months have now passed. I’ve got to start rebuilding my life because I can’t keep living like this.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/03/australia…
# Hot topic Australia, Public and community housing, Security and safety.Imagine if remote community houses were designed by their Indigenous residents
Dr Simon Quilty National Indigenous Times (No paywall)Imagine driving into a remote town like Tennant Creek, half way between Darwin and Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, if over the past 50 years Aboriginal people had been supported by governments, architects and the construction industry to develop communities in their own ways. Homes would likely bear little resemblance to the nuclear-family types we know from bigger cities and towns. They would instead all be wrapped in wide verandas to reflect outdoor living preferences and provided shaded cooler spots outdoors, surrounded by trees and with smouldering campfires cooking meat according to customary law.
https://nit.com.au/04-03-2024/10079/imagine-if-remote-community-…
# Must read Australia, Aboriginal renters.Airbnb says only 1% to 2% of homes in Australia are short-term rentals. What does that really mean for renters?
Josh Nicholas The Guardian (No paywall)Airbnb has been under fire globally and in Australia from housing advocateswho have accused the short-term letting platform of forcing up rents and limiting availability for people seeking long-term lets. In its defence the platform has released a report finding non-hosted short-term rental accommodation (STRA) has “no consistent impact” on housing affordability, only accounting for 1% to 2% of dwellings in each state in June 2022 – a bit more than 100,000 properties in total. (A rental is “non-hosted” when the host is not present during the stay, often meaning the entire property is listed.) But 1% to 2% of all dwellings is about 3% to 7% of rental properties, depending on the state, according to Guardian analysis.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/29/australia…
# Hot topic Australia, .Single father with two children spends four years on social housing waiting list in Warrnambool
Jean Bell and Stephen Martin ABC (No paywall)Two young kids, a widower dad, and nowhere to live — that's the predicament a Warrnambool family is in despite sitting on the social housing waiting list for four years. Doug Bowen and his two young children, eight-year-old Nova and seven-year-old Archie, have couch-surfed and stayed in motels. They even camped out in a rundown school bus parked in a paddock while they waited for a call from housing agencies that never came. The bus did not have heating, cooling, electricity or running water, with Mr Bowen telling his children they were going camping for the school holidays.
"It's just a bus with beds and seats," Mr Bowen said.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-01/single-father-social-hous…
# Australia, Public and community housing, Security and safety, Utilities electricity water gas.‘It was bloody amazing’: how getting into social housing transforms people’s lives
Alan Morris The Conversation (No paywall)For people on the long social housing waiting list, getting into secure, affordable housing is life-changing. Our study starkly illustrates what a difference it makes. We interviewed people who were on the waiting list, and again about a year later. Some had moved into social housing and told us how it had transformed their lives. The positive impacts included improved mental health, reintegration into society, reuniting with children, access to facilities the rest of us take for granted and greater job opportunities.
https://theconversation.com/it-was-bloody-amazing-how-getting-in…
# Australia, Public and community housing.